Our feature this month focuses on one of
our favourite cocktail flavours – cranberry!
This theme gives us the perfect opportunity
to introduce you all to a fabulous new Cranberry
liqueur from De Kuyper together with some brand
new cocktail ideas for you to try out. As if
that wasn’t enough, we have included
some fantastic reminders of cocktail
recipes which all have cranberry
juice as one of their
main ingredients.

Cranberry is such a popular flavour for
so many cocktails because of its taste and
versatility as well as giving such a vivid
colour to any cocktail recipe – why
not try out some of our ideas and see what
you think?

So where do cranberries come from?

The cranberry is a native fruit of North
America. Cranberries were first used by Native
Americans who discovered their versatility
by using them not only as a food but as dye
for fabric and also as a healing agent. Cranberries
grow on vine-like plants which grow in wetlands
in North America often referred to as “bogs”.
These areas are natural bogs evolved from
deposits left by glaciers from 10,000 years
ago. Evolving over time, these deposits produced
the perfect environment for cultivating cranberries.
The cranberry vines need to be watered with
an inch of water every week. The water then
protects the cranberries in the summer from
the hot weather and in the winter from frost.

Harvest time for cranberries is often referred
to as a “red event”. Amazingly,
90% of the annual crop is done by the “wet
harvest” method. This means that the
bogs are flooded just prior to the harvest.
Then a floating harvester moves gently through
the bog, carefully separating the berries
from their vines creating a red carpet of
cranberries on the surface of the water.
The fruit is then meticulously moved to waiting
lorries and taken away for processing. Cranberries
harvested in this way are used for juice
and sauce production.

A “dry harvest” method is used for the remaining 10% of the
crop where the berries are picked direct from the vines and then sold
through US grocery stores for eating on their own or as delicious flavourings
for all types of cakes. Harvest time during mid September to early November
allows for fresh cranberries to be in store for American housewives to
make their own cranberry sauce in time for Thanksgiving on the 4th Thursday
of November.

Apparently the cranberry name evolved from
German and Dutch settlers in America who
called it the “crane berry” as
they though the blossoms of the vine resembled
a bird known as the “Sandhill crane”.
Over time the name was eventually shortened
to cranberry. Also don’t forget that
cranberries are good for you as they are
full of Vitamin C and research shows that
drinking cranberry juice regularly can help
prevent various infections.

Having hopefully made you feel thirsty
to try out our cranberry flavour inspired
cocktails – here they are!

Made
with 2 shots of De
Kuyper Cranberry liqueur – the
Cranberry
Kiss is topped
up with an in-the-spirit
favourite! – champagne. This is a delicious and classy recipe which is
a more up to the minute version of the classic Kir
Royale. Hot tip! If you need
to watch the pennies and champagne may be a bit expensive – you can use
a good quality dry sparkling white wine such as Spanish cava instead of champagne.

Why not feel In
the Pink with our next new cocktail recipe? Again this an incredibly
uncomplicated blend of De Kuyper Cranberry liqueur together with grapefruit juice
to give you a delicious bitter sweet cocktail.

A Big
Mac Daddy is a long drink with a combination of flavours to give you a
mouth-watering cocktail. This includes bourbon, Disaronno
Amaretto, cranberry
juice and ginger ale. Go on – give it a go!

Cape
Cooler – this is well loved cocktail
which is made from vodka, cranberry
juice – then topped up with soda or tonic
water for a deliciously long and refreshing
drink. NB. In America this
cocktail is often referred to as a Cape Codder
because Cape Cod in Massachusetts
is one of the biggest cranberry growing areas
in the country.

Sunburn – this
is a cocktail recipe which gives a strong flavour
of tequila with
tangy-ness of the orange tang of Triple
Sec together
with the sweetness and colour of cranberry
juice makes this a luscious cocktail for you
to try out.